How to Tile and Grout Shower Walls

The last step of the shower remodel is to tile and grout the
shower walls. The home stretch of the project.

When tiling shower walls you want to avoid ending up with small
slivers of tile along one wall. Measure and make sure you
split the difference if you have to avoid this. If it can't
be avoided and you know you'll have small cuts of tile along one
wall, make sure the part of the shower that is the most visible when
you walk in has the full pieces of tile and the less visible wall
gets the smaller pieces.

The first layer of tile on your shower wall is the most critical,
it's like the foundation to a house. I know we tried to
make the floor around the perimeter of the shower level but its
never quite perfect. Use a level to locate the lowest point
around the perimeter of the wall, hold a piece of tile on the wall
with a spacer underneath and mark the top of the tile. Now
take a level and mark a level line all the way around the shower
perimeter, including the seat. This line should be at the same
height as the mark you made earlier at about 12" high. This
will be the target line for your first row of wall tile. Starting in
the most visible corner of the shower, dry fit a tile with spacer
underneath and see if is matches the line. If not, cut the
bottom edge of the tile such that the top aligns with the drawn line
on the wall. Back butter your first tile with a 3/8"x1/4" notched
trowel (assuming 12" tiles) and modified thinset. Dry fit the
next tile with spacer underneath and see if is matches the line.
Continue this all the way around the base of the shower. It
will take some time but once you get this row complete the rest of
the wall tile will fly. With a perfectly level first row of
tile you won't be fighting uneven tiles the whole way up the wall.

Cover the floor tile so prevent a mess of thinset and continue
laying the wall tile. I used 3/16" tile spacers in this
project.

The last tile installed is over the shower curb. Apply thinset
such that the tiles on top of the curb slope into the shower.
These tiles should slope 1/8" or so from one side to the other.
Let all the wall tile dry for 24hrs.

Grout the tile with a rubber float and sanded grout the same as the
floor and wipe down with sponge and water until the tiles are clean.

The shower tile is now complete. The only thing left is
putting the shower door in and installing shower faucet trim.
Refer to the installation instructions for each of those item as
these steps vary widely based on manufacturer.